Kaleidoscopic Raygun: Conan Returns

About 3-minutes into last nights new TBS late-night talk show, I had this strange feeling Conan O’Brien was fighting back a very strong urge to walk off camera like he usually does for comedic purposes, but for good this time. There was an uneasy awkwardness to his opening monologue, to his first dead-joke, and to his transitions. The energy we’d come to expect from his two jobs at NBC was born of two separate “chances of a lifetime” and last night felt very much like a “consolation prize.”

As a huge Conan fan, I felt as if he was sensing my pity and disappointment a little. Not that I am disappointed in him, but more that I’m disappointed for him. Because Conan was a victim and now, months after the NBC screw-job, months after all our Facebook venting and everyone cracking on NBC, and after Leno’s ratings began floundering at levels beneath that of even the brief Conan era, we can’t be mad anymore. We have our Conan back. And that’s what we wanted, right? No, that’s not what we wanted. We, the generation known as “X”, and the generations that are following us, we wanted one of “our own” to sit atop the late night mountain. We want our Tonight Show to be less Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Sylvester Stallone, and Paul Simon and more Steve Carrel, Will Ferrel, The Rock, and Katy Perry.